CALL FOR ACTION: A FLOOD OF EMAILS TO THE MEMBERS OF SLOVENIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL

On April 28th 2020, the National Assembly of the Republic Slovenia passed a law to mitigate Covid-19 impacts on society and economy. Directly translated it is called the Act Amending the Act Determining the Intervention Measures to Contain the COVID-19 Epidemic and Mitigate its Consequences for Citizens and the Economy (ZIUZEOP-A). The problematic Article 42 of this new Act determines the addition of a new 23.A Chapter after Article 100a, called “Construction of Facilities” and new Articles 100b to 100h. Within these articles the public institutions and non-governmental organizations in the field of nature protection are disabled from doing their job in the sphere of protection of the environment. In this way, the new law widely opens the doors to the investors, who want to build infrastructure projects, that are controversial and extremely damaging to the environment. 

If the above-mentioned Act is implemented, the consequences for the environment and our democratic society will be catastrophic. These consequences are a great concern to all of us. 

Our actions so far:

On April 28th 2020, the biologists, nature conservationists, environmentalists, ichthyologists, fishermen and the general public got organized into a group of independent experts and sent an Appeal to the government of RS about this issue, asking them not to pass Article 42. The appeal was signed by 65 organizations and 924 individuals.
THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DID NOT TAKE THIS APPEAL INTO ACCOUNT AND PASSED THE ACT TOGETHER WITH ARTICLE 42. 

On April 30th 2020 we sent an Appeal to the three members of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, that were present at the session which discussed the inclusion of the problematic Article 42 in the above-mentioned emergency Act.THE NATIONAL COUNCIL DID NOT TAKE THE APPEAL INTO ACCOUNT AND DID NOT VETO THE ACT ZIUZEOP-A.

NOW IT’S UP TO ALL OF US TO USE THE LAST LEVERAGE OF DEMOCRACY IN SLOVENIA AND RULE OF LAW TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE NATIONAL COUNCIL AND DEMAND THEY INITIATE A PRIORITY PROCEDURE OF CONSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF ARTICLE 42 OF ACT “ZIUZEOP-A”.

This pressure will work only if citizens of the Republic of Slovenia and international supporters of Slovenian nature and democracy send a flood of emails to all 41 members of the National Council, demanding they initiate a priority procedure of constitutional assessment of Article 42 of Act ZIUZEOP-A, together with a demand to withhold this article. 

How can you join this initiative?

Before Monday, May 11th 2020, send an email (look bellow) to the members of the National Council with the subject line: “Initiate priority procedure of constitutional and legality assessment of Article 42 of ZIUZEOP-A at the Constitutional Court” and YOUR OWN message as well as the following text:
As a concerned citizen of (INSERT COUNTRY) and a supporter of Slovenian nature and democracy, I ask you to start the priority procedure of constitutional and legality review of Article 42 of the Act Determining the Intervention Measures to Contain the COVID-19 Epidemic and Mitigate its Consequences for Citizens and the Economy (ZIUZEOP-A), together with a demand to withhold the implementation of Article 42 of this Act. 

IMPORTANT!
We kindly ask you to notify us once you have sent an email to the members of the National Council by sending an email to us at reknedamo@balkanriverdefence.org, including your country name. This is very important, as it is the only way we can count how many people contacted the National Council.

A word of advice: be direct, but be respectful. Let’s show we are the ones capable of holding this debate on an appropriate level.